Zaman to Receive Prestigious Biomedical Engineering Early Career Award

IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), the world’s largest international society of biomedical engineers, has selected Associate Professor Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE) as the 2013 recipient of its Early Career Achievement Award. Intended for current EMBS members within 10 years of completing their highest degree, the award recognizes significant contributions to the field of biomedical engineering as demonstrated by innovative research, product development, patents and/or publications.

At an awards presentation during the opening ceremony of the EMBS annual conference in July in Osaka, Japan, Zaman will be honored for his key contributions in developing novel quantitative experimental and computational models of tumor development, growth and metastasis, and new engineering tools to address high impact global health challenges.

“I am absolutely humbled to be recipient of this prestigious award,” said Zaman. “I feel so privileged that EMBS considered our work in both cancer and global health worthy of this honor, and look forward to seeing colleagues at the EMBS meeting and sharing our latest findings with them.”

A BU faculty member since 2009, Zaman heads the Cellular and Molecular Dynamics Lab, which engineers new experimental and computational technologies for major healthcare problems in both the developing and developed world, including probing the mechanisms of cancer metastasis. The lab focuses on how physical and mechanical properties of cancer cells impact their growth and movement, modeling this behavior in computer programs.

Meanwhile, Zaman is developing robust, cheap, portable and user-friendly diagnostics and analysis toolkits to address global health challenges. As director of the Laboratory for Engineering Education and Development (LEED), he works with BU students to advance technologies to detect counterfeit drugs, preserve biological reagents used in diagnostic tests and provide other in-demand healthcare solutions targeting the specific needs of resource-limited countries. He is also co-director of the Africa Biomedical Engineering Initiative, which was funded by UN Economic Commission for Africa to improve biomedical engineering education, innovation and practice in Africa.

Zaman’s achievements in cancer and global health research have earned him funding from USAID, the Saving Lives at Birth Consortium, U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and many private foundations, as well as several invitations to participate in U.S. National Academy of Engineering research and education symposia. Zaman has also served as keynote or plenary speaker at major national and international conferences and published dozens of highly-cited papers in leading biomedical journals.